Hello from the road once again! A lot has happened since I
have last shared with you so hold on tight..
Let's Catch Up
Within the last week and a half our team has been able to
meet and love on a whole lot of exciting, crazy welcoming people. The churches
we have come to serve throughout this trip only want to serve us, which is so
humbling! Ill just jump right into the fun stuff and catch up where I left
off..
First Reformed Church
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| At Shelley's Farm |
Our next church to meet and hang out with was Frist Reformed
Church of Sheldon, Iowa. Here we were able to put on a concert with the kids of
the church but also hang out with them more than in past churches. When we
first arrived Kelsey and I were invited to stay the weekend with a woman of the
church, Gert. She openly welcomed us to come and stay with her and was so
excited to have us stay. On our first night of being there Kelsey and I were
able to sit down and talk with her and she told us how being there was such a
blessing since she is widowed. She loved to talk about her grandkids and also
genuinely wanted to get to know us on a personal level, which was intimidating
yet encouraging at the same time. The next day we spent all day practicing and
hanging out with the kids and that night was able to go hang out at Shelley’s house. Shelley was our church connection in that she
was the one who set up this entire concert and made it possible for our group
to come out to the church. That night she openly welcomed us to her house to
hang out and it was a lot of fun because it was on a farm! The next day we had
our concert, which went great, but that night we had to say our goodbyes which
was sad because this church was so welcoming it felt like we were leaving our
family.
Westbrooke Church
After saying goodbye to new friends in Iowa we moved onwards
to Westbrooke Church in Overland Park, Kansas where we helped with another VBS.
We arrived Monday night and jumped right in on Tuesday morning helping out.
Kelsey, Raleigh, Mary, and myself together helped run the Bible part of the VBS.
Basically we acted out the stories we were told to do by the curriculum. This
was a lot of fun for me personally because it reminded me of our VBS that my
home church does and also it was fun to do mostly “men involved” stories with
all women. The kids loved getting to have us do the stories for them and
likewise I loved helping make them fun for them. Our entire week, Tuesday to
Friday 9-12 consisted of the VBS but it was lots of fun to get to help with
that again! Friday we once again said goodbye to another church and moved onto
the next.
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| Country roads are all we see anymore! |
Crete Berean
Church
Next we moved on to a familiar church and congregation of a
few of our fellow tourists. Dan Williams, the pastor of the church, is Mary’s
brother. He is a newer pastor of the church and has been super excited for us
to come as well as an opportunity to see his sister and niece, Megan. When we arrived Dan welcomed us and it was a
great time for Mary and Megan to be able to catch up and we moved on to our
campground for the weekend. Josh, a man of the church, helped get us settled at
the campground and gave us some snacks for the weekend as well as his car to
use for transportation instead of moving the RV every single time. We were able
to share with this church by having a morning a brunch with the ladies of the
church. This personally was an awesome experience for me, getting to sit down
with the women of the church and talk to them on a personal level is so
encouraging. All of us were able to share a little bit about ourselves and Bong
was able to share about her ministry in a more intimate setting. After spending
the morning with them, our team had the afternoon off and took time out in the
town. By Sunday night we had a children’s concert and it was just a lot of fun
to see the kids really enjoy the concert as well as the parent and others. It
always amazes me how every church reacts differently to the music we bring in
but they all enjoy it equally the same.
I don’t think I can say how encouraging it is to be able to
travel with this team and go into different churches enough. It is truly an
amazing experience and I am so glad I did it! I do believe that through this
God has opened my eyes more to what being a “church” and being the church of
God really is! Thank you for your prayers and as I continue to finish out this
long but amazing summer!
